Black students talk about the achievement gap in Alabama schools

As part of an ongoing series Tackling the Gap, four black students came forward to talk with AL.com about the barriers they and other black students faced during their enrollment at different school districts within Jefferson County. They talk about how some teachers evaluated their educational success and character through the lens of racial biases and how the lack of opportunities for advance coursework can feed the achievement gap.

But their stories also provide some solutions as to how to equalize the educational experience in Alabama.

Kameryn Thigpen

18 years old, 2017 Clay-Chalkville High School graduate

Clay-Chalkville High student enrollment numbers: Out of 1,419 students, 61 percent are black and 32 percent are white.

Thigpen said she has had one teacher during her enrollment at Clay Elementary, Clay-Chalkville Middle and Clay-Chalkville High. There were 11 black teachers and 71 white teachers during the 2015-16 school year, according to the Alabama Department of Education. Thigpen said she wasn’t taught by a black teacher during her entire four years at the high school.

Thigpen said there were instances where black teachers were mocked at her school by white teachers. In her AP Calculus class, she said her white teacher treated the black students differently than the white students.

Amari Mitchell

16 years old, Hoover High School junior

Hoover High enrollment numbers: Out of 2,902 students, 29 percent are black and 58 percent are white.

Amari Mitchell started struggling in math after he transferred from Irondale Middle School to a Hoover middle school in seventh grade. The Hoover students were studying things he didn’t learn in Irondale. But when he tried to keep up in his math class, he said he felt discouraged due to the treatment he received from a white teacher.

Not all white teachers have treated him differently than his white classmates, he said. There was one white instructor who became his saving grace last school year.

Mitchell said most black students at Hoover High come from other predominantly black school systems. Some of these districts are located in lower-income areas where there is less access to rigorous curriculum due to lack of resources.

Mitchell said some Hoover teachers don’t take the time to mentor or push black students. Instead, he said they are more likely to be placed in suspension or alternative school.

According to the most recent disciplinary data from the Alabama Department of Education for the 2015-16 school year, Hoover City Schools reported 20 incidents involving black male students for defiance of authority. They spent a total of 44 days in suspension and 453 days in alternative school. Hoover City Schools reported 12 incidents involving white male students for the same disciplinary issue. They spent a total of eight days in alternative school. No days of suspension were reported for white males.

In terms of fighting, the school system reported 14 incidents involving black males. They spent a total of 45 days in suspension and 90 days in alternative schools in total. No incidents were reported for white male students. If there were 10 or fewer incidents at a school, the incidents weren’t mentioned in the reports.

Jackson Olin High School enrollment numbers: Out of 947 students, 98 percent are black.

Shea Washington quickly learned she was different from the rest of her classmates while attending predominantly white Hall-Kent Elementary School, which is part of Homewood City Schools. During her time there, she felt like some teachers were trying to prevent her from taking the reading test or being in the gifted program. After transferring to predominately black Brighton School, she said she received the same treatment as her classmates. But her time in the gifted program at Brighton was short-lived because the program ended when the teacher left.

From then on, Washington constantly ran into the issue of lack of opportunities at predominately black schools. There were not enough higher level reading books in her middle school library at Brighton. She wasn’t able to take a certain AP class Jackson Olin High.

Washington’s story shows how the lack of opportunity to take advance courses or be provided with certain materials, such as AP classes, feeds the achievement gap.

Jackson Olin had five AP courses during the 2016-17 school year for biology, English language and composition, English literature and composition, U.S. government and politics and U.S. history. Mountain Brook High School has 30 AP classes focusing on 25 subjects ranging from Latin to computer science.

To solve the problem of lack of opportunities, some schools partner with community organizations. Kuumba Community Arts started the Teen Design Academy to teach students between the ages of 14-17 graphic design techniques. Kuumba carved the beginnings of Washington's graphic design career by allowing her to do work for Tedx Birmingham. Her mentors helped her find a paid internship. Without Kuumba, Washington said she would not be majoring in graphic design at UAB.

Qadira "Mango" Miner

15 years old, Ramsay High School sophomore

Ramsay High School enrollment numbers: Out of 812 students, 96 percent are black.

Qadira Miner has experienced a diversity of different school settings during her educational career. She has attended nearly 10 different schools, including predominantly white private schools, public schools like Putman High School and she attended Floyd Middle Magnet in Montgomery. She now attends Ramsay High School, which is a selective school that requires students to pass a test to gain admission.

Like the students who have spoken before her in this article, she illustrated how it felt to be left out of classroom discussions to the point where she didn’t want to pursue a career in the sciences anymore.

"Reinforcement: a reflection on my educational experience"

At the end of her freshman year at Ramsay, she was asked by her vice principal to write a spoken word poem about her educational experience. During the poem, titled "Reinforcement: a reflection on my educational experience", she talks about how the treatment towards black students in Alabama “reinforces” an inferior mindset that affects students' perception of themselves.

Tackling the Gap: A Teacher's Conversation is a series concerning the large and persistent achievement gap between black and white students when it comes to the percentage scoring proficient on standardized tests. AL.com and Spaceship Media have been hosting an online conversation with Alabama teachers since May to explore the contributing factors and looking for solutions.

The Black Magic Project focuses on black individuals who embody the persistent and bold spirit of those who forged the Civil Rights Movement in big and small ways.